Hold on to your cup of black coffee and slice of cherry pie...'Twin Peaks' is back!

A third season of Twin Peaks will hit our screens in 2016! This is simply wonderful news. As a huge fan of David Lynch and the Twin Peaks series, I can hardly contain my excitement. Kyle MacLachlan will return as Special Agent Dale Cooper. Unfortunately it's only 9 episodes which is a bit of a shame. Maybe if it does well, more will be made. More info below:

Comments

Is that a good idea, so long after Twin Peaks ran? It's now a cult classic, I have difficulty seeing it live up to its own myth now. I hear Mark Frost is back, too, maybe that's a good sign. But I'm usually skeptic when classics are revisited. But I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for this!

I think that DL and MF are original and imaginative enough to do something good with this...but, we'll see. I think it's a good idea to revisit this as the show finished on a cliff hanger but also because the last few episodes didn't pull in the ratings at all so I'd like to see the world of Twin Peaks redeem itelf. I enjoyed all the episodes but the later ones did become somewhat wishy washy in parts.

Yeah, let's hope for the best. Lynch coming back to this is a good sign, better than someone reinventing it because they bought the rights. I haven't seen it in its entirety, Twin Peaks lost me halfway down the second season and I avoided the film. Time to change that.

Can't see it working, but the original is brilliant. A shame the TV station forced them to reveal who the killer was. It could and should have run for several more series without ever necessarily revealing the killer. These days you wouldn't expect to find out, but back then the TV execs were still pretty risk averse. Although you have to give them credit for commissioning it in the first place.

The ratings for the later shows plummeted so the execs forced Lynch to reveal the killer. If the original series was aired now for the first time, I wonder how well it would do in this day and age. Would it still fail or are people more open to more surreal stuff?

Funny how the news came around just as I found myself at peace with having David Lynch’s oddball, eerie interview with the Palmer family included on Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery as a fitting epilogue to the series, giving a sense of closure after all these years.

As for the news themselves, I would say Lynch and Mark Frost seem to have their work cut out for them. I’m not the most rabid fan, but nonetheless find myself wanting the continuation to feel every bit as groundbreaking and expectation-defying as the series did back in the day while I at the same time also would feel badly cheated if it didn’t pamper the palpable feelings of nostalgia the very name Twin Peaks evokes. Quite unreasonable of me, but I would guess I’m not alone. Furthermore, the way the second season went I’m not sure I necessarily think the series was cancelled prematurely. Picking up the seemingly exhausted story after 25 years would seem quite the challenge even without the show’s near mythological status in some quarters, towering expectations and the conceivable backlash waiting to happen. And they have to do it without Don S. Davis, for crying out loud.

In related news, the other day Mark Frost announced he is working on a novel named The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks, set to be published late 2015 and covering events of the town after the end of the series. That certainly could be used as a convenient way of tying up loose ends and start the screen revival on a somewhat clean slate. Convenient for better or worse, of course, but nonetheless another intriguing prospect.

I watched Twin Peaks several years ago and consider myself something of a fan though not as hardcore as some folks out there are. Series 2 quite honestly was tough to sit through. I think Lynch is at times his own worst enemy. He has some neat ideas but they don't always work out as well as they should. By scripting craziness over more craziness, Twin Peaks lost all sense of logic. Sure, that's what you get with Lynch, but it's not what I want to keep me engaged for the full length of a TV series.

Oh no! I can't believe it! What a damn shame. Wish I had have never heard the news on the radio last year and gotten my hopes up. This is so disappointing. Twin Peaks without Lynch is like the James Bond films without James Bond!

Not stunned by the news, but a bit disappointing nonetheless. Can't help to feel curious about the causes of the present debacle. Lynch seemed happy enough to make a very public, attention-grabbing announcement of the continuation, did he really do this without a basic understanding with Showtime regarding budgetary conditions? Of course, there is also the lingering suspicion that he's using the fanbase's expectations - and in many quarters, current crushing disappointment - as a negotiation/blackmail ploy which would seem a bit unbecoming. And given the mounting expectations and Lynch's longtime at best ambivalent attitude about revisiting Twin Peaks, I suppose cold feet could be conceivable.

Anyway, my guess would be we haven't seen the end of this. Should the continuation go on with other directors I think it will be badly crippled, by Lynch's absence yes but also by the manner of which he is seemingly pulling out. A bit of a pity, I think.

Yes, I heard the news on NPR yesterday. What a disappointment. I was hoping they'd be able to get it right this time. The first season was so moody and atmospheric, and then
it went wildly off the rails. It should have been a one season show with the ending everyone was hoping for.

Well, seeing as how the show basically imploded in season 2 when Lynch dropped out the first time, I think this is very bad news indeed. Hopefully it is in fact a negotiating ploy and he in fact in.

The time is right for Twin Peaks to make a comeback - what with True Detective , The Killing , The Bridge etc. I think the show could be very successful if handled properly - it could actually survive Lynch if they get someone else with heft in.

I hope they bring back some of the old music too - Audrey's Dance , Dance of the Dream Man & Bookhouse Boys were personal favourites of mine for years. A damn fine cup of black coffee and cherry pie indeed!

In announcing his departure Lynch made a rather melodramatic reference to calling actors to tell he would not be directing the continuation, but as far as I know only Kyle MacLachlan has been officially confirmed. Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) and, intriguingly, Sheryl Lee has also announced their participation, and claimed that Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne) is returning to her role too. Several other actors have been rumoured to participate as well, and I would be genuinely surprised if Ray Wise (Leland Palmer) didn’t find his way into the script somehow. The other day members of the old cast published a video voicing support for Lynch, though having already felt abandoned by him during the second season I guess it also might feel like history repeating itself a bit.

Lynch somewhat ambiguously indicated that the continuation could still be happening at Showtime. The company itself claims negotiations were ongoing and that they still hold out hope to go ahead with Lynch and Mark Frost as planned. When Lynch started making ugly noises in March, sources indicated that the bone of contention concerned percentage of DVD and streaming revenues rather that the budget of the show. Anyway, if the matter is purely financial I would guess some agreement beneficial to both parties could be made allowing the continuation to go ahead, with or without Lynch in the director’s chair.

But things could be more complicated than that. If Lynch genuinely feels the money offered was not enough to do the script justice, the question arises whether he has any final say as its co-writer. He has been decidedly protective of the legacy of Twin Peaks in the past, vetoing proposed continuations and spin-offs without his participation and if he really would feel the pre-production of the third season is going in the wrong direction, I would think the whole project would face serious problems (especially since the final contracts still seems to await signatures). And if say MacLachlan would decide he doesn’t want to return if Lynch is not directing, I think things could come crumbling down pretty quickly as well.

But as for now, it seems the continuation is still alive. Lynch’s words may not be final, though that of course can cut both ways.

I'm curious about names like Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Mariqueen & Trent Reznor, Laura Dern and Naomi Watts... And good to see many of the old ones back. Julee Cruise singing again as well, I gather - good.

Great names there! Great that Lynch is directing after all and will helm all the episodes which are more than 9 now, it is said. In fact I'm pretty sure I read that they'd be 18 episodes instead of the original 9 that were planned but I haven't read anything referring to this lately so maybe that was just a rumour.

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